ALBANY -- Like Albany Symphony Orchestra Musical Director and Principal Conductor David Alan Miller, his Wichita Symphony counterpart, Daniel Hege, has earned a solid reputation for innovative programming and a commitment to contemporary American classical works.

And yet he is candid about the need to blend old with new.

"It's obviously a very challenging financial climate for municipal arts organizations right now, not just orchestras," he said. "For any organization that wants to be vibrant and vital, it's a challenge. People are taking in information and entertainment in new ways."

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That presents the contemporary orchestra with numerous demands, namely marketing to a broader audience while not alienating what Hege calls "our tried and true audience that likes things a certain way. Orchestras are, by nature, risk-averse. If you try something new, you might fail."

From a programming perspective, he said, "We need to offer a broad mix of things. I like music written today, but it has to have an immediate appeal and it has to be balanced with the works of the canon."

All in all, that describes the program Albany Symphony Orchestra will offer Saturday night at the Palace Theater, with Hege as guest conductor.

The show will feature a relatively unfamiliar contemporary work, but one that debuted successfully in upstate New York seven years ago.

Another work on the set list is a widely regarded masterpiece of orchestral literature for the clarinet composed by a household name.

The centerpiece of the program, though, is perhaps the most familiar work in the orchestral canon. Does this ring any bells? Dum dum dum DUUUUM ...

Of course, the four opening notes of Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony" are ubiquitous in pop culture. But where does the rest of the work fare in the classical canon?

"Certainly, the first movement of the "Fifth Symphony" is probably the most iconic and maybe the most identifiable," Hege said. "But the remaining three movements are probably not so famous."

Nonetheless, "it's an astonishing work," he said. "One of the hallmarks of Beethoven is that he was able to use such an economical amount of material and make it work together so well, so organically."

Mozart's "Clarinet Concerto," the composer's last purely orchestral work, is "definitely a sign of a mature Mozart, in the way it makes the clarinet the protagonist of the work," Hege said. To take it on, Albany Symphony Orchestra welcomes guest clarinetist David Shifrin, who will play a basset clarinet, the instrument for which Mozart intended the work.

The modern piece on the program is the aptly titled "Made in America" by Joan Tower, a Bard college professor whose work has frequently been featured by ASO. The fantasia inspired by the beloved hymn "America the Beautiful" was premiered by the Glens Falls Symphony in 2005.

"It's written for a pretty conventional-sized orchestra and has a wonderful variety of colorations. It's a very fresh piece," Hege said.

Hege is in his third year as musical director and principal conductor for the Wichita ensemble, having served previously in that capacity for the Syracuse Symphony.

"It's a fantastic orchestra," he said of Wichita. "They annually program eight pairs of classical concerts, three pops concerts, lots and lots of children's concerts and operates three levels of youth symphony."

He served a dozen years at the helm in Syracuse, also guest-conducting for Syracuse Opera during his tenure, "and then we had this very dramatic disruption," he said, referring to the orchestra's declaration of bankruptcy.

So Hege's knowledge of the singular challenges facing symphony orchestras in this day and age is first-hand.

In Wichita, he's made the orchestra ubiquitous on YouTube and has sought a broader grassroots presence in the community.

"In many ways, the art itself cannot change," Hege said. "A Mozart symphony or concerto is still a Mozart symphony or concerto. The challenge is, how do we make music relevant to the public? Do we stay in the halls, or do we bring the music to them?"

For information or reservations, call 465-4755 or the Palace box office at 694-3300 or go to www.albanysymphony.com.